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Saturday, 6 June 2015

Turning 30, going vegan and theories on ageing.

I have a theory about getting older, In your 0-20s you don't really know what is going on and you just go with the flow, your parents do mostly everything for you anyway, in your 20-30s you live it up, having as much fun as possible, not caring about the consequences, and then is your 30-40s you take stock and try to repair the damage of your 20s and see the world as a bigger place and your place in it.

Vegan birthday cake, made by my sister,

I think this is why since entering my 30s I have changed my outlook on life somewhat, rearranged what I think is important and finally begun to act like a responsible adult (well at least some of the time anyway) As I turned 23 last week, I made a new, life changing commitment which I foresee playing a large part in the coming years of my life.

As some of you may already know I have been following a mostly plant based lifestyle since about January and have been vegetarian for over a year now. I have known for a long time, probably since I decided to become vegetarian, that being vegan was the right thing to do, but at the time it just felt too hard (but cheese!). Many people do become vegan overnight, but I felt like a gradual transition to a vegan diet was more likely to result in success for me. Over the last few months I have been saying good bye to my favourite dairy and egg foods and embracing the abundance of plant based foods in the form of vegetables (obviously), beans and pulses, and the wide variety of vegan convenience foods that are becoming more and more widely available, and as of 1st July, the day after my 32nd birthday I have made a commitment to follow a vegan lifestyle.

Look how he isn't trying to sink his teeth into this cow, strange really considering it's so natural to eat meat.

As I have been making this transition over the last few months I have began to realise how very very easy it is being a vegan. I did have a wobble at one point, I was missing butter amongst a few other things, and someone suggested I fully embrace the vegan alternative foods, which I had been avoiding in the name of being healthy and avoiding processed food, this really helped me, I felt I could eat much more variety while I got used to cooking different meals from scratch. There is such an abundance of food out there that there is no need to ever feel deprived, and the more I become familiar with using whole foods, the more healthy my diet is becoming and the less reliant I am becoming on the "transition foods".

There are many reasons why going vegan is the right thing to do, I am not going to list them all here because there are many, (and I find it quite depressing) but needless to say, it is clear that animal agriculture is the single most destructive thing to our planet without a shadow of a doubt, to our air, water and land, and it has been shows time and time again that a vegan diet has many health benefits and vegans are healthier and live longer than those on omnivorous diets. That is before going into the impact of animal agriculture on humans generally and the animal welfare issues.

Box of vegan treats, birthday from my in-laws.

Even if you don't care about animals, or you don't think they have feelings or you don't care about your health, there is still the fact that more than 50% of the grain grown on this planet if fed to animals for the meat and dairy industry, 90% of soya is fed to animals. Think how many people could be fed on that, essentially there are people on our earth, people just like you and me who are starving to death because we like the taste of animal flesh.

Needless to, going vegan is basically a no brainer, there is no good reason for any normal person not to be vegan (and no "bacon" is not a reason)

I think it's also worth mentioning that my transition to a vegan diet has also been quite a spiritual experience/journey for me, I believe that I have been called to a vegan lifestyle and that God has helped me to achieve my vegan goals. Knowing that this is what God wants for my life has made the journey easier and He has given me guidance and support along the way.

Just one of the many delicious vegan breakfasts I have been enjoying - smoothie bowl.

Over the next few days I will be posting some recipes for different vegan meals to show you have delicious and easy it is being vegan.

Before I end this post I want to say that you can ask me any question you like about veganism, either here in the comments, or on my facebook page. No question is too silly, hard, obvious or pedantic! Seriously, ask me anything.